Originally Posted by RRTEC

I wanted. to drop a quick post here not to open a can of worms but to provide some info about why I made the decision to use the EPS "Eternal" IMS bearing in my 108k engine. I want to preface this with the fact that I have been researching the IMS issues for about 4 years. I started reading well prior to the purchase of my car almost 3 years ago. My car is a 1999 dual row bearing car, I originally purchased it to replace my LS powered Mazda Rx7 track car but the car quickly became my top choice for my commute and I put about 20k on it the first year. It suffered a cracked head/intermix issue in Feb of 2016 and I decided to DIY replace everything while I had it apart.

I was determined to replace the bearing for peice of mind. My car has 108k miles on it and I figured I was on borrowed time with the OEM Bearing from everything I had read. When I pulled the bearing I was disappointed and joyed to find it in perfect shape, save for some oil past the rubber seals and in the IMS shaft. The oil was clean that came out of the bearing and the bearing was in perfect shape.

After discovering that putting a new stock bearing (that lasted 108k with no signs of letting up) back in wasn't possible, I decided to try and replicate that...I had read some threads on home brew bearings and decided to go that route at first. I bought a dual row NSK/SKF bearing and coupled it with the Pelican basic IMS kit and was going to install that without a second thought... and then some "unpleasantness" came out, although I wasn't using ceramic or Boca bearings I just couldn't commit to really gambling with my engine at this time.

There are plenty of people on the LN bandwagon and if I could afford it I would go with the DOF "Solution" from LN. But I can't. I didn't want to spend $800 for just a basic Bearing Set with no real warranty (due to no pre qualification on my engine, and DIY status). As well as reading of others who have had LN failures. And so I looked at alternatives. I saw the EPS bearing and could only find 1 thread where a shop said that the EPS bearing in an engine was "on the way out" but probably due to install issues..

I asked around and the new "best ever" non DOF appears to be the Cylindrical Roller Bearing use. I read all the nasty talk from people about the EPS thrust control, the bad English on the website, the talk about the weakened oil pump drive etc... But couldn’t really find people with glaring failures. There are lots of people saying "have xx,xxx miles with no issues" but no real hateraide. So I bought the kit and it was delivered the other day. I opened the box and the kit is well done everything appears to be of good quality and it was packaged well. For those worried about the hex drive, the slot is so small (the photos are not representative of the actual depth at all (red drive key pictured in advertising) as it would never really effect the integrity of the drive.. The bearing although pretty, is nothing special, and the rest of the kit is tools and the flange.

There are some things about the setup I am not super excited about (Loctite use, tapping holes in the IMS covers etc) but after holding the Pelican/LN single row el cheapo replacement in my hand with its spacers and the wobbliest bearing I have ever seen and knowing that there are cars rolling around with that setup I feel really confident. I may decide that this is a wear item vs an Eternal fix as they say (do it again next clutch) or I may not.. Overall only time will tell if I made the right call for my car and my wallet. Like I said I only dropped this here so that others considering this setup have some info, despite knowing that it will probably get cluttered with a bunch of stuff telling people that this setup is garbage.

I honestly know why Porsche spec'd a new engine vs a new bearing, because all of these fixes no matter how elegant or well-advertised, or successful are a work around to a serious engineering problem. LN, RND, EPS, all of these companies have eaten their own engines and customers engines while trying to save customers engines, it happens, mechanical parts fail, in the end we as owners have to decide how much hype, customer satisfaction, and failure rate we are willing to live with. Personally I pulled a bearing that was perfectly good with a reported less than 1% failure rate to lose sleep over a bearing with an unknown failure rate with no real world guarantee. Personally if I could go back in time I would have checked my dual row in the car, and left it there... But alas I have made my bed and now have to lie in it.. Wish me luck.

Originally Posted by RRTEC

I wanted to drop a quick post here not to open a can of worms but to provide some info about why I made the decision to use the EPS "Eternal" IMS bearing in my 108k engine. I want to preface this with the fact that I have been researching the IMS issues for about 4 years. I started reading well prior to the purchase of my car almost 3 years ago. My car is a 1999 dual row bearing car, I originally purchased it to replace my LS powered Mazda Rx7 track car but the car quickly became my top choice for my commute and I put about 20k on it the first year. It suffered a cracked head/intermix issue in Feb of 2016 and I decided to DIY replace everything while I had it apart.

I was determined to replace the bearing for peice of mind. My car has 108k miles on it and I figured I was on borrowed time with the OEM Bearing from everything I had read. When I pulled the bearing I was disappointed and joyed to find it in perfect shape, save for some oil past the rubber seals and in the IMS shaft. The oil was clean that came out of the bearing and the bearing was in perfect shape.

After discovering that putting a new stock bearing (that lasted 108k with no signs of letting up) back in wasn't possible, I decided to try and replicate that...I had read some threads on home brew bearings and decided to go that route at first. I bought a dual row NSK/SKF bearing and coupled it with the Pelican basic IMS kit and was going to install that without a second thought... and then some "unpleasantness" came out, although I wasn't using ceramic or Boca bearings I just couldn't commit to really gambling with my engine at this time.

There are plenty of people on the LN bandwagon and if I could afford it I would go with the DOF "Solution" from LN. But I can't. I didn't want to spend $800 for just a basic Bearing Set with no real warranty (due to no pre qualification on my engine, and DIY status). As well as reading of others who have had LN failures. And so I looked at alternatives. I saw the EPS bearing and could only find 1 thread where a shop said that the EPS bearing in an engine was "on the way out" but probably due to install issues..

I asked around and the new "best ever" non DOF appears to be the Cylindrical Roller Bearing use. I read all the nasty talk from people about the EPS thrust control, the bad English on the website, the talk about the weakened oil pump drive etc... But couldn’t really find people with glaring failures. There are lots of people saying "have xx,xxx miles with no issues" but no real hateraide. So I bought the kit and it was delivered the other day. I opened the box and the kit is well done everything appears to be of good quality and it was packaged well. For those worried about the hex drive, the slot is so small (the photos are not representative of the actual depth at all (red drive key pictured in advertising) as it would never really effect the integrity of the drive.. The bearing although pretty, is nothing special, and the rest of the kit is tools and the flange.

There are some things about the setup I am not super excited about (Loctite use, tapping holes in the IMS covers etc) but after holding the Pelican/LN single row el cheapo replacement in my hand with its spacers and the wobbliest bearing I have ever seen and knowing that there are cars rolling around with that setup I feel really confident. I may decide that this is a wear item vs an Eternal fix as they say (do it again next clutch) or I may not.. Overall only time will tell if I made the right call for my car and my wallet. Like I said I only dropped this here so that others considering this setup have some info, despite knowing that it will probably get cluttered with a bunch of stuff telling people that this setup is garbage.

I honestly know why Porsche spec'd a new engine vs a new bearing, because all of these fixes no matter how elegant or well-advertised, or successful are a work around to a serious engineering problem. LN, RND, EPS, all of these companies have eaten their own engines and customers engines while trying to save customers engines, it happens, mechanical parts fail, in the end we as owners have to decide how much hype, customer satisfaction, and failure rate we are willing to live with. Personally I pulled a bearing that was perfectly good with a reported less than 1% failure rate to lose sleep over a bearing with an unknown failure rate with no real world guarantee. Personally if I could go back in time I would have checked my dual row in the car, and left it there... But alas I have made my bed and now have to lie in it.. Wish me luck.

Originally Posted by Patrick Baginski

Almost ten years into this thread, and having read all of it now, I can say this has definitely caused more confusion than understanding. Here’s my take-aways from this only thread:
1. Some people say do nothing at all, the original dual rows don’t fail as much.
2. Some people say the later M96-gen Porsche updated bearings don’t fail as much, do nothing.
3. Some say do EPS, some say do LN, some say do neither because only the “solution” will be true peace of mind.

well,well,well,… here I am with my 78k 2003 996 with the updated Porsche bearing wondering if I should be spending 4.5-6k at all to do this.

Originally Posted by plpete84

That $4.5 - 6k sounds excessive. Is this for an auto transmission? In December of 2020 I paid $4100 (all parts and labor) for this job AND it included a new clutch and flywheel + RMS. The LN IMSB was $679. This pricing was from an indy in the DC area which is not known to be affordable.

Originally Posted by Patrick Baginski

Almost ten years into this thread, and having read all of it now, I can say this has definitely caused more confusion than understanding. Here’s my take-aways from this only thread:
1. Some people say do nothing at all, the original dual rows don’t fail as much.
2. Some people say the later M96-gen Porsche updated bearings don’t fail as much, do nothing.
3. Some say do EPS, some say do LN, some say do neither because only the “solution” will be true peace of mind.

well,well,well,… here I am with my 78k 2003 996 with the updated Porsche bearing wondering if I should be spending 4.5-6k at all to do this.

Originally Posted by hbdunn

Hartech uses the larger bearing in their rebuilds so that would answer the question for me.

Originally Posted by Patrick Baginski

By "the larger bearing", are you referring to the upgraded Porsche OEM bearing in the later years 996s? Or a different one all together?

Originally Posted by hbdunn